10 years

Over 20 years ago I was moving into my first apartment. My mom, dad and two sisters each made me a piece of art to hang on my new walls. This was my dad’s piece, titled “Off the Payroll”:

I think this sums up his humor, love and support perfectly. Because of course, despite his jokes, he still bought us dinners and took us on vacations and provided emotional support and life advice and took me school supply shopping for my classrooms and spoiled my girls so much more. 

The impact of the loss of him 10 years ago can’t really be summed up in words on a blog post. Our lives are so different now. Our family has grown and changed so much. 

Ten years later we are deep in teen/tween parenting life and it is busy and harder than I ever expected and yet there is a lot of fun and joy to be had. And I know he wants that for us, is proud of us, and is here with us, no matter what. 

I love you and miss you, Dad. ❤️❤️ Always. 

Timehop Tuesday

I didn’t find too many Timehops this week…except this one of me running in races. Holy moly have I gotten older and it has gotten harder! 😜

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday! We had a nice weekend. Maya and I laughed a lot over her loud burp at Lunds and hand fun in the new hammock. 

Today we went to the condo for a gathering time to remember my dad. He will be gone for 10 years on Wednesday so we had some of his favorites: rum and diets, burgers on the grill, and my mom made homemade carrot cake. And the T-Wolves won to boot! 

Have a good week. 

A Picture Update

Happy Friday! 

This blog is 16 today…!!!! So wild.

It was another busy week. We got a “new” couch from Boom for upstairs and I got a new lovely hammock for my birthday that I put in the porch!

Tonight I went out for a girls night…dinner at Mallards and to see my all time fave musical Waitress!!!! 

It was soooooo good. Highly recommend! And also the reason why I’m posting this at nearly 11pm…when I would usually have been asleep for 2 hours. ;)

Have a great weekend.

Happy Birthday to…Me!

It’s 4/24 which means it’s my birthday! It also means 16 years ago we found out we were having a baby who is now a full blown teenager. Time flies! 

I had a busy day at work and went to happy hour with some friends and enjoyed my fave Indian food for dinner!

Thanks for all the well wishes today! 🩷

Timehop Tuesday: Happy Birthday Auntie Hanna!

It’s Auntie Hanna’s birthday today! Here’s a Timehop from one of the first birthdays we celebrated together.

We love you and hope you have a great day! 

And a couple other fun spring Timehops. 

Weekend Wrap-Up: Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!!

We had a lovely day. More on that later.

Yesterday, Luna was super unhelpful while the rest of us were cleaning, Maya went on a hike with Pa and Max, and Callie helped me fill the eggs! Then later…the Easter Bunny left the baskets. 

Today I got all three creatures to cooperate for an Easter photo (as seen above) and then we headed to church. Later, we hosted an Easter gathering, complete with an egg hunt (in the rain) for the kiddos, tacos and delicious desserts!

Then things got a little out of control with the delicious cupcakes Pa and Max brought…

All in all it was a very happy Easter!

Have a good week! 

A Picture Update

Happy Friday!

The big event within our busy week was Maya s first track meet! We had to drive down to Northfield and she only ended up competing in one event (three 100 meter dash). But it was a lovely afternoon to be outside!

And of course, Chipotle for dinner. 

Have a great weekend! 

Timehop Tuesday

Here you go! Happy Tuesday!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Hello! Happy Sunday!  It finally feels like spring.

Callie and G-ma headed down to Iowa State for their student fashion show this weekend.

And Maya invited a friend to sleepover (I took them shopping!) while Luna was her usual cute and naughty self.

Have a good week! 

A Picture Update

Hey all! Happy Friday!

It was a super quick and busy week after spring break. Maya decided to join her school’s track team, so practices started this week. So far so good! 

Our pictures from the week include some biking, a full moon, and Luna’s ridiculous and cute begging face.

Have a great weekend! 

Timehop Tuesday

Silly sisters:

The CJGs:

Weekend Wrap-Up: Happy (Belated) Birthday Lucy!!!!

First up, it was Lucy’s 8th birthday yesterday!!!! We got to celebrate with her a bit today. ❤️

We love you, Luce, and hope you had a fun day! 

As for the rest of the weekend…Maya had fun with G-ma and Boom on Friday.

My mom and I went to the Hands Off Rally at the capitol yesterday! It was PACKED. The light rail train on the way there was insane…and the crowds at the event were awesome, too.

Then there was some cousin time.

It’s actually lovely outside today so we enjoyed some sunshine. 

Back to the grind tomorrow…have a good week! 

An Early Picture Update: The Nashville Edition!

Hi all!  I'm coming to you a little early this week since we just got home from our spring break trip to...NASHVILLE!

On Sunday afternoon we hopped on a flight and had a very bumpy ride to the Tennessee sunshine.  We got  takeout bbq and got to our Airbnb (which hadn't technically been cleaned yet) and ended up waiting for the 2-person cleaning crew to show up.  They finally did around 8:30pm, so we hung out in the living room for an hour before we could settle in.  But it was all good...we were on vacation!

On Monday morning I headed out on an early walk to explore the neighborhood.  Look at our cute little house for the week!  And the pretty blooming trees!

It was a pretty chilly day, but that didn't stop us from getting out to explore all the touristy spots in Nashville.  Our fist stop was the Parthenon museum, where we saw the giant statue of Athena.

We then headed to downtown Nashville...HONKY TONK Central. 

We stopped at Goo Goo Chocolates and the girls were each able to design their own chocolate bar.  

We got a recommendation from the chocolatier for lunch nearby (Cafe Intermezzo) and had a great meal in a fancy little room.  It was the best chicken salad I think I have ever had! 

Our next stop was the Little Words Project.  The girls each got to make their own beaded bracelet at the "Bead Bar." 

Callie wanted to get some photos at the infamous "wings"...and Maya was her photographer.

After some rest time at the house, we headed to a. different part of the city...near the Grand Ole Opry!  There is a mall across the street that housed the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and we had a BLAST hanging out with all the famous musician wax figures.  They were actually pretty creepy. 

At the same mall was the Aquarium Restaurant, where we headed for dinner.

And on the way back to the car I had to get a picture of the Opry. It didn't look at all like I expected.

On Tuesday morning we headed to the Nashville Zoo.  It was fun...but I will say I like our MN Zoo better.  

Maya chose to get a stuffed lemur for a souvenir (named Orange), who was with her the entire the rest of the trip.

We stopped for lunch and ice cream on the way back...and then Maya, Orange and I walked around the neighborhood and saw a couple fun signs.

We went to a brewery close to our house for dinner, and there was a guy there making balloon animals!

Wednesday was a big day!  We headed about an hour and a half outside the city to Rock Island State Park. Callie had done some research and wanted to see the big waterfalls.  It was hot and windy, but we still got some hiking in.  

On the way back to Nashville, we found a cute little restaurant in the tiny town of Smithville, and it had the best food!  The owner was there and brought us some samples of authentic southern pimento cheese and delicious homemade chicken salad sandwiches...and then there was the piece of cake we split.  YUM!

She recommended that we go to a farm nearby to CUDDLE GOATS and we were like YES PLEASE. OMG.

They were so adorable!

We went to bed on Wednesday night and were rudely awakened by multiple phone alerts and tornado sirens outside at 2:30am.  We pulled up the radar and it looked...BAD.  We spent about a half hour in the interior bathroom of the house (we didn't have access to the lower level...) and then we were kept awake until probably after 4am because of the random phone alerts and sirens and the extremely loud thunder and lighting storm.

Needless to say we were tired this morning, but were able to get packed up and headed to a cereal bar for breakfast (for them, I stopped to get breakfast tacos elsewhere!).

Overall it was a fun trip at a place we had never been before.  And if you want to see some videos from the trip, click here!

Thanks for the memories, Nashville!